The Trial 4K 1962

The movie was not even close to what I expected it to be. Having first watched the modern, BBC's version of Kafka's 'The Trial', I assured myself that it was pretty bad (there is a certain faintness of entourage and facelessness of characters in it, even for this book a bit overdrawn), and the screen adaptation of this novel performed by the classic filmmaker Orson Welles should be at least better.

Well, I was wrong. The antics of the protagonist of this adaptation, if anything, look quite enjoyable - there's no way I'm going to believe in the transformation of this character over the course of the film. The acting is not just inaccurate, but generally out of whack.

Next, about the script. Rarely there are such novels, where the narrative itself simply obliges screenwriters to touch nothing, but even here Orson Welles felt free to make his contribution, and spoiled everything, not only with a crooked description of the actors' behavior, but also with the final chord at the very end of the picture.

The staging is, not surprisingly, good. The train station, all those camera plans - camerawork and staging - are top-notch.

In general, I want to say that if a person wants to watch the adaptation of Kafka's 'The Trial' - the new version from director David Hugh Jones - is much more similar to the novel, without any far-fetched directorial finds, but nevertheless - from the adaptation of this book they are least expected.